Final day of work experience

Day 5

 

Today was my last day. I started an hour earlier then usual and finished an hour early to make it a full day. I had to finish off the final touches in the office from which I started. Randomly, as I was working Andrew appeared informing us we were heading to Ardmore studios. This was very unexpected as it was not near where we were but spiked my curiosity. Ardmore studios is only up the road from where I live and yet I had never been. It was great to finally go inside the place I drive past at least twice a day! The studios were smaller then Ashford but still very impressive to say the least.

When we got there Andrew had a meeting and I got to look around at the set.

We got back to Ashford in time for lunch, seeing as it was Friday I treated myself to curry chips and a free coffee.

Over all I'm ecstatic with how the week has gone I've learnt so much and I am very interested in the type of work I tried.

I liked the fact that there’s no uniform and people can wear what they want. The atmosphere is pretty relaxed although the women really like gossiping and talking. I’d never heard so much gossiping at one time!

Over all, it was a great week. I would like to go back and be an extra. I’ve done that before for Love/Hate and that’s brilliant because I got paid. I’d definitely go back if I was allowed. Thanks to all the crew at The Ashford Studio for making me feel welcome.

Day4 of work experience

Day 4

 

Due to the treacherous weather conditions all scenes were cancelled and I was given the day off. Storm Desmond caused a lot of hassle! I was a bit disappointed because I was supposed to go to the night filming where they were going to do a battle scene with horses. They had loads of fake blood ordered and it was meant to take place in Spain. Due to the wind and rain, it wouldn’t have looked authentic so they had to cancel. I can go back in the new year, which I would love to do.

Day 3 or work experience

Day 3

 

Today I left the office and spent the day on set on location at the Ashford studios. I got to meet loads of actors such as Alexander Ludwig, Travis Fimmel and Kathryn Winnick. I felt really privileged to be in a position to witness live filming.

They only did one take of each scene. There were two people involved in direction and two actors on set. There was no director’s chair there – the main director stood up all the time. It was just the actor sitting on a boat shouting to another actor. It’ll be interesting to see where they place this scene when it goes to film. Maybe they’ll be out on the ocean.

I enjoyed being able to see first hand how the special effects and lighting was done and it was a remarkable experience to say the least. But there’s a lot more standing around than I’d realized.

Day 2 of work experience

Day 2

 

Today I worked from noon until four once again. I wish school was on for those hours too. It’s amazing- I get a lie in and get home early.

I was given a guided tour of the whole set. It’s huge. I was surprised to see that it was real. I imagined it would be made of cardboard and wouldn’t look like a real Viking village. But it’s incredible. There’s streets, houses and bridges and they all look completely real – probably because they were. The roofs on the houses were real and they were proper houses that people could actually live in if they put in heating and lights.

There were specific streets for certain scenes. I saw a Paris street and street made to look like Madrid. It’s mad to think that around the corner are offices and loads of cars parked and this isn’t a real place.

Next I saw how the makeup and hair is done. This wasn’t special effects make up, just the normal stuff that most girls would own.

Then I was shown the lighting and how it all works. The lights technician was really busy so I couldn’t really ask him too many questions. Next I was allowed to see the special effects and facial and hair sculptures area. I took a photo, which I’ll post below.

They make actual heads for the scenes where someone is beheaded. These heads are so real looking and they add real hair and lashes for extra affect. It’s impossible to tell that these fabricated heads aren’t real.

Day 1 of work experience

I did my week of work experience on the set of the show called ‘The Vikings.’ The set is based in Ashford studios in Wicklow.

 

Day 1

 

On the first day I arrived at noon where I was greeted by a man named Andrew. I was working for Andrew in the office. Andrew works full time in the production offices as a manager. I assisted him for the morning by helping him with paper work and sorting out files. I was one of the lucky ones because I had my own office.

At one o’clock I was given a lunch break where I met up with one of my friends from school who was also taking part in work experience. We went to the canteen where I saw the Vikings trying to get free coffee! They gave us tips on how to get coffee for free instead of paying €2. It was so strange to see a bunch of Vikings in a huge modern canteen eating and drinking.

There was a lot of stuff on offer for lunch, everything from wraps, vegetarian options and soup. I had chips – none of the Vikings did though.

After lunch I went back to my office where I continued with the filing I’d been doing that morning.

This was my first day so I didn't get to go on set

School talk

On Monday 10/11/15 we were given a speech from Mia and Garbriel on what they did over the mid-term abroud to help people living in poverty. Gabriel was first and instantly from the first sentence the room was as quite as a graveyard, only his voice was heard while he told us about the area and how children as young as six years old were living on the streets until they over dosed on drugs and had to be taken into care. Garbriel went with his mum and show led pictures of him and the children there.

Mia went to Nepal with her dad and Zach OSullivan in second year, many children were also loving in poverty but not as bad as where Gabriel had been, the children had junior and high schools like us just less of the facilities. It was eye opening to see the powerpoints and hear the stories 

Mini company

For my mini company I made a small company with my two friends from Bray Zach and Donal to create 'Lifesavers inc'. Are product is a small portable charger, the charger comes with a micro phone lead, the charger can charge anything with a usb, the charger when fully charged gives you a full change and a half. The product is small along with the price, the price of a small charger with a lead is €12, there's a variety of colours to choose from too. Sales are going brilliant nearly all of the Chargers from the first shipment have been preordered. But we shall be selling them at the school bazaar 

Kairos

                                                          Kairos


Kairos was the most enjoyable workshop so far this year. Everything that happened was new to everyone and it was brilliant to make this experience with my friends. We made a TV show called the Jerry springo show about the mixture of the stereotypical north and south side residents of Dublin. When we first started we had prewritten the script and had all our props. We got a tour of the area in manooth collage where we would be spending the majority of our day. On our tour we visited the set, the room was fantastic filled with top class cameras, microphones and lighting it was breathtaking to be honest. We were all given our positions whether acting, floor manager, producer, camera person etc. I was Jerry and had to interview all the fictional characters. This was an educational but truely interesting experience and I would love to do it again 

Gaisce update

Gaisce 

Gaisce has been brilliant so far I am hoping to achieve my bronze medal, I'm learning so much through all the things I've been doing and I still have so much more to do like first aid and voluntary work. I am continuing to do me  guitar and Maui Thai lessons and all is going well. I am so excited to see how much I can learn and improve.

I.T is not for geeks

Today I had a talk on technology in are society, I really enjoyed the IT talk and I learned a lot from it.  They explained how the IT industry is at its peak and how there are so many jobs in the industry but just not enough people to fill the jobs. Computers and technology is constantly surrounding us and a basic understanding is needed for most jobs today 

Bag packing for S.V.P.

On the 16th of October I went to Cornelscourt shopping centre to pack bags in aid of Saint Vincent de Paul. I look the midday shift between twelve to two. It was something I had always seen while shopping as a child so to be in the other side of things it was a great experience. I helped a women named Mary who was full of chat and brought a smile to every customers face. I was constantly greeted by the most generous bunch I had ever met, everybody was more then pleased to offer a tip and by that we raised €3,500 which is a new school record. Over all it was a marvellous experience and I'd love to re do it.

Eagles flight

The eagles flight day was one of the tremendous days for being in transition . We were all split into groups to participate in the workshop where we played a game. Great attention was required at the time of given instructions as it was very unique. There were five teams and the main objective was to reach the mountains and collect as much gold and return without dying, unfortunately it was so straight forward, sandstorms and risk of starvation increased the difficulty on each groups original tactics. Unfortunately the days went by and so did out water supply so I order to survive my team had to retreat and ended up coming last in the game. This didn't bother me as it was still brilliant to have a day like we had and I hope there is more to come 

Zoo

Today I visited Dublin zoo, the zoo was tremendous from start to finish. We got a guided tour of the zoo explaining the characteristics of all the animals. After the tour we headed to the cafe where we got lunch and watched the hilarious fights between all the meerkats. 

While I was lost for words seeing the lions I noticed a squirrel was in a tree above the Cubs, suddenly to my surprise the squirrel fell and it was demolished by the lioness.

Camping trip

                                                         THE CAMPING TRIP 

The camping trip was quite a interesting experience, I didn't have much history with camping or sleeping outside in the cold for that matter so it was a couple of days I'll never forget. After receiving my junior cert results I was over the moon and the journey still hadn't began, the whole year was due to arrive in Lough Dan before lunch. 

Setting up the ten year old tent was as much frustrating as it was exciting. 

I enjoyed cooking all the food myself rather then having it made as well but the camping trip also had some disadvantages such as sleeping on the floor, hearing the sound of starving rats scattering around your tent in hunt of food. 

At night we created a large bonfire leaded by Callum due to his remarkable scout skills, unfortunately for Callum his creative idea of making a teepe didn't work as he wasted all the wood and got a heavy amount of grief. At the campfire the surprising encounter of a deer left the whole year star struck.

The highlight of the camping trip was probably the twenty-two kilometre hike hence everyone was able to complete their gaisce hike and shared jokes and stories to pass the time.